Orlando Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing – Is Your Web Design Search Engine Friendly?

By Jason Nyback

Search engine spiders and human users see two different things when they visit a web page. It’s important to optimize your site for both audience, considering that without the search engines you’ll have very little traffic (and if your traffic doesn’t stay on your page there’s no point!). Below you’ll find tips for optimizing your site for both human and search engine traffic.

1. Take the “8-Second Test.” Ask someone who knows nothing about your business and has never seen your page to visit your webpage. Give them eight seconds (time them) to determine the purpose of the page. If your test subject can’t tell you what your page is about in eight seconds or less, it’s time to revamp the site to make its purpose more clear. Most search engine traffic won’t even give you eight seconds before making a judgment. If your site is confusing or unclear, visitors will simply click away.

2. Avoid using design elements that search engine spiders cannot read. Flash, graphic text, and images cannot be read by the search engines. You can describe what an image depicts using alt tags; however, most image or graphic elements do nothing to improve your site’s search engine ranking. Emphasize content and balance your use graphics to please both humans and search spiders.

3. Tell the search spiders and your users what each page is about. One of the best things you can do for your site is to write a keyword-rich description that tells what users can find on that page of the site.

4. Make certain your site’s navigation is easy to use and in working order. Visitors should be able to navigate from page to page with ease to find any information they are looking for. Provide clear links to the main pages of the site, and use anchor text to link to relevant pages within the site. If any broken links exist, correct them immediately. Search engine spiders will deduct points for broken links and other faulty navigational elements.